protestantism

protestantism. The term originated with the protest of the reforming minority at the diet of Spires in 1529 against the catholic majority. As a general description of the anti-catholic position, it was adopted with some caution: several of the churches into which the new movement dissolved were strongly opposed to each other, while conservatives were not anxious to stress the role of individual conscience in religious matters. The common protestant ground was rejection of papal authority, emphasis on the Bible, devotion to preaching, clerical marriage, and a more austere ceremonial. The main divisions of protestantism were Calvinism, lutheranism, and zwinglianism, with the Church of England claiming an autonomous and independent position.

In Scotland, a protestant regime in its presbyterian form was established in 1560 and survived, amid great vicissitudes, to become the national religion in 1690. Protestantism also made much headway in northern Ireland, where Scottish influence was strong, but much less in the south which remained predominantly catholic. In England, the consolidation of the protestant Church of England owed much to the misjudgements of catholic monarchs Mary and James II, and to the upsurge of national enthusiasm produced by the long struggle against catholic Spain.

Catholic polemicists in the 16th cent. argued that the appeal to private conscience must, in the end, lead to religious anarchy. Protestantism was not long in dividing—indeed it was born divided—over the nature of the eucharist, the role of bishops, the importance of good works, and the method of baptism. The fissiparous nature of the movement continued to the 20th cent., with splits, secessions, and schisms in most denominations. Even the methodists, one of the more sober sects and themselves a split from Anglicanism, divided into Wesleyan Methodists, Calvinistic Methodists, Methodist New Connexion, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyan Methodist Reformers, Bible Christians, and Wesleyan Methodist Association, while the religious census of 1851 identified Wesleyan Christian Union, Benevolent Methodists and Temperance Wesleyans. In the late 20th cent., falling membership, financial problems, and a more ecumenical spirit prompted a number of protestant reunions—the Free Church of Scotland rejoined the Church of Scotland in 1929, the Presbyterian Church of England merged with the Congregational Church to form the United Reform Church in 1972—but though relations between protestants and catholics are much warmer than in the 19th cent., re-unification has yet to come about.

J. A. Cannon